Air muddied over $20m stack trial

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The State Government will spend $20 million on an air filter
trial in one of Sydney's tunnels when the cost of installing a
permanent air filter system could be only $40 million.

Government documents obtained by the Herald show the
planned trial would filter such a small area that it would not
improve nitrogen dioxide levels.

A Roads and Traffic Authority report suggests it would cost the
Government $40 million to filter the complete M5 East.

The Roads Minister, Michael Costa, has not said which tunnel
would be in the Government's trial but in a policy shift, will
investigate filtering the Lane Cove tunnel if the Federal
Government pays half the costs.

The federal Member for North Sydney, Joe Hockey, says he will
honour his pre-election pledge of $10 million to filter Lane Cove
tunnel, on the condition the money is matched by NSW.

Mr Costa's predecessor, Carl Scully, refused to fund filtration
technology until it had been tested in one of the city's tunnels -
either the M5 East, the Cross City or Lane Cove - arguing the
technology was unproven.

But Mr Costa has asked the RTA for costings on filtering Lane
Cove, although he claims $10 million in federal funding would not
be enough because he believes it would cost close to $70
million.

This is despite an independent report prepared for the RTA by
consultant Noel Child, which says an "electrostatic precipitation
system" could be installed in the M5 East tunnel for about $40
million.

The precipitation systems, which reduce particle emissions in a
tunnel before the polluted air from exhaust fumes is pumped out a
stack, are used throughout Japan.

Lane Cove Council's tunnel project manager, John Lee, said the
Government should abandon the costly trial and spend the $20
million on filtering a whole tunnel rather than part of one.

"Even if the Government could only filter half a tunnel, it
would be better than a small trial."

Matt Jones, a spokesman for Mr Costa, said the minister was not
looking at filtering other tunnels and no decision had been made on
whether the nearly completed Cross City tunnel would be included in
the trial.

Mr Costa's decision does not pave the way for other tunnels to
be filtered, despite health concerns raised by residents living
around the M5 East tunnel and its stack at Turella.

Paul Levins, a spokesman for Baulderstone Hornibrook, builder of
the Cross City tunnel, said the Government had not informed it
whether a precipitation system would be tested in the tunnel.

The internal Government documents show the decision for a
filtration trial was pushed by the RTA, as a response to community
concerns "about in-tunnel and ambient local air quality".

"In particular, [it was in response to] persistent community
calls for the retrofitting of filtration into the M5 East, the
Cross City tunnel and the Lane Cove tunnel," the documents say.

A spokesman for Mr Hockey said the offer for Lane Cove would not
be extended beyond $10 million.